Saturday, August 16, 2014

The speech, India waited for

I have
witnessed almost all of India's Independence day celebrations so far,
leaving aside first few ones, when I was too young to understand even
meaning of freedom and independence. Every year on independence day,
India's prime minister traditionally address the nation, from the
ramparts of the red fort, situated in the heart of its capital New
Delhi- a sort of “state of the Union” address. Historically
speaking, the significance of this speech, where prime ministers make
major policy announcements, was always lost to most of Indians till
1980's for the simple reason that there was no way in which people
from far flung regions of India could participate in this event of
national pride being held at Delhi. The event remained more or less a
localized occasion in New Delhi alone.

During
1950's, we did not even have a radio transmitting station in my home
town Pune. The only radio station nearby was in Mumbai, which usually
carried the prime minister's speech live. But there used to be one
problem. Obviously, in those years, there were no satellite or
optical fiber microwave links between Delhi and other places, so
Mumbai radio station, transmitting on medium wave band , would relay
the prime minister's speech picked up by its radio receivers on short
wave bands. Any of the readers, who have listened to a short wave
band radio station, would remember the waxing and waning that is
inherent with any short wave band broadcast. My father used to have
an ultra sensitive radio receiver, which he had bought from second
world war surplus junk market. The reception on this set, pecked up
directly from Delhi transmitter, used to be slightly better, than the
one relayed by Mumbai, but still very poor. We could only catch, what
the prime minister said, when the signal waxed or was on ascendance.
Then there was a problem of understanding the Hindi language, as I
was not very proficient in it. In spite of the difficulties, I still
remember the wonderful rhetoric of Prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru
coming on short wave band radion on independence days.

After
the speech was over, that used to be the end to it. There were no
discussions, no analysis, no looking through the lens, because India'
tightly controlled Radio, based on soviet era ideas, never allowed
any political discussions and prime minister's words were always
sacrosanct. The actual report on the independence day speech by the
prime minister therefore, would be available to us only on the third
day or 17th
August for the simple reason that no news paper would be published on
16th.
By this time the significance of the speech would have been lost and
its impact would have faded. Nehru died in 1964 and with him was gone
the interest of people like me, to listen to any independent day
speeches.

In
1975, the then prime minister announced a national emergency and
suspended fundamental rights of citizens. Most of the opposition
leaders were put in jail. Though this was revoked in 1977, I never
ever felt again like listening to the prime minister's speech even up
to last year (2013). It became just a happening for me, like majority
of us, where we were neither interested or concerned and when we
simply turned off our radio or TV sets.

On the
radio and TV linking scenario, the things changed only in 1980's, when
microwave links and television stations were established around the
country. We could actually see the prime minister making a speech
from red fort. However the charisma of Prime minister Nehru no longer
was there and independence day speeches remained out of my bounds.

In
1999, I did feel like listening to the prime minister, when Prime
minister Atal Bihari Vajpai was at helm. Though an excellent orator,
he did not change the set boing pattern of the independent day
speeches of listing and ranting achievements of the Government and
making tall claims of launching grandiose schemes. Because of this,
even his speeches became dull and not something to look forward to.

This
year, India elected a new prime minister; Narendra Modi, who is a
fantastic orator. In the first place, he has a mastery and command
over the language, which he uses; Hindi. His diction (the choice and
use of words and phrases) is almost perfect. He uses almost every
trick of the trade in the delivery of words like volume, emphasis and
inflation. Most of the time, he appears to be communicating with the
audience instead of giving sermons. Yet, all this trickery only does
not make his speech brilliant. It is the content of the speech that
is the king. I have yet to hear a speech from him, which does not
give a message of relevance to the audience. He is full of new ideas
and innovations.

Like
millions of other Indians, I was therefore very keen this year to
listen to our new prime minister's independence day speech, as for
last two and half months, since he got elected, he has been keeping
quiet, perhaps busy with his assignments. I, perhaps due to my apathy
of decades to independence day speeches, did not even know the time,
when he would be speaking. I therefore switched on TV, first thing in
the morning just to find out the timing of the speech and promptly
switched it on again at the stipulated timing.

To say
the least, Prime minister did not disappoint me at all. In fact he
was brilliant. The setting, the weather, the crowd, everything was
perfect and so was his speech. Most of the common people like me must
have also thought so. I am saying this after reading hundreds of
tweets pn the subject. Here are some of the tweets that I have picked
up from a torrent appearing on twitter.

The
Red Fort Speech by Shri @narendramodi was the most inspiring in
recent times. Energy, patriotism and Josh. Happy Independence Day.

Hv
bn hearing PMs at Red Fort frm Indira's. time This is 1st time am
hearing what had always wish to hear.

After
a long time Red Fort must have felt good today.:)

After
10 years,ppl were eager 2hear #modispeech from red fort on d eve of
independence day of india.inspiring speech will definately do best

Modi's
has broken all the barriers between common citizen and himself. After
ages have heard apolitical speech from Red Fort.

Never
heard a PM speech from Red Fort like this, in last 2-3 decades.
Acchhe din aayenge ! 100%

I
was awestruck/floored by the Ex tempore speech of our PM Modi during
I Day from the Ramparts of Red Fort.We will progress soon.

We
witnessed a statesmanly, spell-binding and inspirational address to
the nation, by the Hon’ble PM Modi ji, from the historic Red Fort.

I
think that should suffice. One thing is certainly clear. As long as
this man is at helm, I am not going to miss an independence day
speech for sure.